Brain Scans To Predict Dementia Up To 9 Years In Advance

MRI breakthrough '80% more accurate than common tests'

- Hanna Geissler

MRI scans can predict who will be diagnosed with dementia up to nine years early, research suggests.

A team at Queen Mary University of London has developed a first-ofits-kind method that analyses the brain's network of connections.

They claimed it was more than 80% accurate and better than memory tests or measurements of brain shrinkage - two common ways of diagnosing dementia.

Professor Charles Marshall, who led the research, said predicting dementia was vital "for developing treatments that can prevent the irreversible loss of brain cells".

He added: "Although we are getting better at detecting the proteins in the brain that can cause Alzheimer's, many people live for decades with these proteins without developing symptoms."